Astronaut Roberta Bondar is cultivating curiosity on Earth, 30 years after she saw it from space

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In 1992, Dr. Bondar became the first neurologist and the first Canadian woman to fly in space. Since then, she’s been on a quest to improve our appreciation for this planet

On a calm night you can see starlight reflected on the waters of Batchawana Bay, a sheltered indent in the Lake Superior shoreline just north of Sault Ste. Marie, Ont.

For eight days, she circled the globe while conducting experiments in a laboratory module aboard the space shuttle Discovery. Looking out, she could see the bright rim of planet Earth superimposed against what she called the “unimaginable black” of space. Seas and continents rolled past below, along with the place where she grew up, which was easy to spot at the meeting point of three Great Lakes.

She said that whether Dr. Bondar is speaking to students or hanging out of a helicopter to capture an image, she exudes a striking blend of humanity, technical competence and total engagement in whatever she takes on. Being in her company, Ms. Patterson said, “is a learning experience.” By then, her father had passed away and his absence was keenly felt. After Challenger – an event that Dr. Bondar said left her feeling like her stomach was sinking into a void that would never end – she was buoyed by her family’s unhesitating support for her mission, even when it was better not to dwell on the risks.

That profile formed early, thanks to the influence of a technically minded father who loved photography and a mother who would later return to school to become a teacher. Her parents, who came of age during the Depression and the Second World War, loved to explore alongside their children, Dr. Bondar said, as if making up for experiences they has missed when they were younger. “They made the question ‘why’ be an important value – to ask the question and then to try to seek an answer,” she said.

It was an early sign that, despite her qualifications, the administrators of Canada’s space program were not sure how to relate to a female astronaut. Dr. Bondar said she did not feel well-supported in the leadup to her mission and that much of her training went undocumented, except for photos she took herself.

Dr. Bondar visits a Toronto middle school in 2007 for an announcement about teaching pupils about the environment.Years before, with her career as an astronaut behind her, Dr. Bondar was faced with reimagining her next chapter. She explored returning to medical practice, but her public profile made hospital rounds uncomfortable. She said that at one point, while helping out in a busy emergency room, she was asked to look at a patient with a bowel issue.

 

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